The Vehement Flame eBook

Maurice shook his head: “I’m all
right. Mrs. Dale will you step in here?
I want to speak to you a minute.” As Lily
preceded him into the dining room, he said, quickly,
to the doctor, “I want to tell her not to worry
about money, you know.” To Lily—­when
he closed the door—­he was briefly ruthless:
“I’ll pay for everything. But I just
want to say, if he dies—­”

She screamed out, “No—­no!”

“He won’t,” he said, angrily; “but
if he does, you are to say his father’s dead.
Do you understand? Say his name was—­what
did you call it?—­William?”

“Well, say his father was John Dale of New York,
and he’s dead. Promise me!”

She promised—­“Honest to God!”
her face was furrowed with fright. As they went
back to the doctor Maurice had a glimpse of Lily’s
bedroom, where Jacky, rolled in a blanket, was vociferating
that he would not be carried downstairs by
the orderly.

The bothered doctor half consented, and Maurice lifted
Jacky, very gently; as he did so, the little fellow
somehow squirmed a hand out of the infolding blanket,
and made a hot clutch for his father’s ear; he
gripped it so firmly that, in spite of Maurice’s
wincing expostulation, he pulled the big blond head
over sidewise until it rested on his own little head.
That burning grip held Maurice prisoner all the way
downstairs; it chained him to the child until they
reached the street. There the clutch relaxed,
but for one poignant moment, as Maurice lifted Jacky
into the ambulance, father and son looked into each
other’s eyes, and Maurice said—­the
words suddenly tumbling from his lips:

“Now, my little Jacky, you’ll be good,
won’t you?” Then the ambulance rolled
softly away, and he stood on the curbstone and felt
his heart swelling in his throat: “Why
did I say ’my’?” As he walked
home he tried to explain the possessing word away:
“Of course I’d say ‘my’ to
any child; it didn’t mean anything! But
suppose the orderly had heard me?” Even while
he thus denied the Holy Spirit within him, he was
feeling again that hot, ridiculous tug on his ear.
“I was the only one who could manage
him,” he thought.... “Of course what
I said didn’t mean anything.”